Timmy raises funds with concert at the Bishop

While many 9-year-olds were riding bicycles, junior Gaby Cheikh was starting the Timmy Foundation with her doctor Chuck Dietzen.

Cheikh is president of IU’s Timmy chapter.

Originally based in Indianapolis, the non-profit foundation provides medical services and resources in developing countries such as Guatemala. The organization has grown to include eight college chapters since 1997 and sends a chapter to set up medical brigades in four to five villages every other month.

The foundation transforms the music of guitars and drums to the tools of stethoscopes and bandages by presenting a concert to benefit its cause.

The concert for an 18 and older audience will be at 9:30 p.m. today at the Bishop and will feature three live bands: Company of Thieves, Alexander the Great and The Giggles. All proceeds will go to the Timmy Foundation. Pre-sale tickets are available at Tracks and Landlocked for $7 and tickets at the door are $10.

Last year, IU’s chapter raised $15,000 and successfully built an intensive care unit and a postpartum ward in Ecuador. Currently, the IU chapter of 40 active volunteers has the goal of raising $15,000 to build medical bases.

“We have built a relationship with these people by working a hand-in-hand effort,” Cheikh said. “We brought access to things everyone deserves.”

Headlining at the fundraiser is Chicago-based band Company of Thieves, who will be returning to Bloomington where they sold out a show last year.

After recently signing a label, the band’s MySpace read, “Influences are at times detectable – a little Fiona Apple here, a bit of John Lennon’s social activism there – the band is far from being mere mockingbirds.”

Local bands are good because they attract a following that will take advantage of the great stuff happening outside of Bloomington’s trends, said sophomore Shelley Westerhausen, who is a volunteer for IU’s Timmy chapter.

In the past two years, the Timmy Foundation presented “Timmypalooza.”
This event will be Timmy’s first fundraiser in 2009.

“It’s really nice to see people coming out and getting excited enough about what we do,” Cheikh said. “Plus, it’s awesome music.”